


The day the meteor shone on them

by alliedwolves



Series: The Starlight Theatre Presents: [1]
Category: The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals - Team StarKid
Genre: Hive Mind, Mind Control
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-28
Updated: 2019-05-28
Packaged: 2020-03-20 18:39:21
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,371
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18998269
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alliedwolves/pseuds/alliedwolves
Summary: The Hatchetfield Bee, Prudence, just wants to crush on Deb in peace. Dan just wants his career to be over. And we all know what it is to Want, on this particular day in Hatchetfield.Minor characters experience the Apotheosis come upon them.





	1. Good Morning, Hatchetfield

Good Morning, ~~Tuscon~~ Hatchetfield

 

The Morning Hatchetfield News was probably the highlight of his fucking day, no matter how sad that sounded. He’d been there 15 years, telling what passed for news in his hometown. Arrests, sales, marriages sometimes, that fucking squirrel he’d mentioned as a joke and the public had latched onto like some kind of mascot. Dan’s life was the colour of his old white dress shirt, almost, but not quite, the same as the day he’d bought it, worn down to that weird blue grey that came from washing a shirt too long. What he wouldn’t give to be done with it, both shirt and job.

“–twelve year old girl is smashing records, and sizeable planks of wood.”

“Huh, That’s amazing. I know where to go if I need kindling this winter, Donna!”

The autoprompter flashed the words at him, and he read them, perfect smile and perfect pitch, cadence as smooth as his well made up face, or Donna’s satin blazer. They looked at each other with a cordial, almost-more smile that had become their trademark as they dismissed the strange rumours that it was the meteor that had instigated the musical riots. The moment they cut to the commercial, they settled more into the apologetic grimace that defined their working relationship. Donna was still hoping to get work outside the town, and Dan wished her every luck, but he’d washed that hope down the drain with his whitening toothpaste long ago.

She didn’t smoke anymore, but the metallic bubble gum scent of the vape she was starting to use was too much for him, and he shuffled off as he did every 11:17 music break to grab the donuts from Beanies. He shoved his music buds in his ears, she puffed her clouds of smoke, and they took the moment to be apart, not Dan-and-Donna as the autoprompter made them. He liked her, curmudgeon that he was, but there was only so long he could sit inside with its fake plants and fake smiles and fake reclining chairs that confused every guest at least once.

Beanies was quiet. He was so regular a customer that his coffee and donuts were already there, jam filled and a mocha for him, and black coffee with a almond croissant for Donna. She’d seemed to like them best, anyway. Zoey smiled at him, and nodded, but didn’t acknowledge him: he liked her tough-ass boss better. Maybe her bitterness brought it out in the coffee, or maybe that was just him. Jesus, he needed to stop reading midlife crisis novels. He made a point to nod and smile to her as he left, shoving his headphones back in his ears as he headed back to the station, 11.27 sharp. Fuck, his life was fucking boring as a bus schedule. He sipped at his coffee as he walked, frowning at the taste before shrugging and sculling it down before getting to the business of his donut, as usual. The syrup seemed weirdly bitter today. He made a note to ask not to try this dark chocolate kind or whatever it was next time as he climbed the last few stairs to the booth. Donna smiled at him, really smiled, in her vague, calm, off camera way, and finished putting away her vape. He put the coffee and pastries just beneath the desk, and she nodded. No time, today, to drink it. He frowned and swiped his hand across his mouth when she indicated he had jelly on it, and crossed his hands on the desk, as he always did. He noticed his singing along to the jingle before he noticed the blue jam on his hand.

“We’re Donna, and Dan….”

When the touch up crew came to set his face to rights, he shoved his hand in their face, and they joined the hive. Finally, something exciting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Good Morning, Tuscon, by Jonothan Coulton  
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6K9vQoxnqQ0&t=2s


	2. Unashamed Desire

If Prudence had to be honest, she’d admit that the school improv troupe held little savour for her in and of itself. She was good enough at it, and it’s not like any one here was going to be auditioning for  _Whose Line._ But no. 

Her reason for coming was the girl on stage now, confidently taking offers and building a scene, lazily propped into a chair like she had too many limbs for it. 

Her reason for not coming out was far more complicated. 

The only girl she was crushing on, had ever crushed on, was in a relationship and Prudence wasn’t some kind of… Homewrecker! Schoolwrecker? It’s not like anyone at school owned property for real. This was Hatchetfield High, they weren’t fucking  _Timberwolves._ Relationship wrecker, anyway. She could love Deb and no one else and no one had to know, least of all Deb, or Alice. 

The scene ended, and Deb and the lanky freshman she’d been doing the noir scene with returned to their seats. Lanky sat next to an empty space reserved for his friend and gave the bathroom a worried look: she’d been gone almost the entire practise, and she seemed, to be brutally honest, a lot like Prudence. Big on extracurriculars for college, 100% attendance, that sort of thing. Come to think of it, a bunch of those kids weren’t here today either, or had disappeared throughout the class. The freshman was the only one left. 

He looked at Pru, pleading, and she jumped to her feet. Time to go check if it was puking or smoking, and definitely not flee being alone with Deb with but a single kinda dweeby Chaperone. 

“Hey, I’ll go too, you don’t have a phone, right?” Deb asked. “Steve can hold the fort.”

Prudence hoped her collar hid the blush she could feel running up her neck. Curse Deb, her consideration for others, her excellent memory, and all her fucking virtues. Curse Pru’s parents and their weird standards and wanting her to have a date for prom and the pointed way they’d started saying “ _partner”_ about the hypothetical. Curse–

“Sure,” she said, and she should get points for her acting out off class too, really. 

* * *

Deb nodded along to her story about the puppy her parents had adopted, yet another guide dog in training to be given up, and Prudence breathed out, her blush fading out. There was nothing to worry about, it’s not like mind reading existed. She even laughed along to a story about Deb’s rescue dog, convinced the fly screen was going to collapse on him and avoiding it at every turn. They came to a bathroom, and they both stopped, frowning at the weird noises coming from within. It didn’t sound like puking, more like some kind of… weird alarm? 

Deb stopped behind her, pulling out her phone. 

“I’ll wait out here, in case she’s sick, or whatever the fuck that noise means. Stay safe, and just. You just yell out if you need me,” Deb said. 

Prudence nodded. Her goddamn crush barely even swooned over Deb’s little concerned frown, since she was wearing a matching one, she was pretty sure. She took a breath, and stepped in. 

What looked like blue bath soap covered the mirrors, dripped from the taps, and she grimaced when she realised her hand was covered in it. The alarm sounds stopped as she wiped it off, maybe it was a phone alarm to take meds or something? Who fucking knew, with how today was going.

 “Rene? Are you all right?” 

Something grabbed her from a stall, and she didn’t have time to scream before a sharp pain tore her heart out of her chest, and she looked up into bright blue eyes. Her heart wasn’t beating fast in her chest anymore. The eyes disappeared and a fast moving pain sped through her shoulder, her arm and chest and legs and everything felt simple. 

Her heart, she shoved into the pocket of her pinafore. She knew just to whom it belonged, now, and everything would be easy. All they had to do was get Deb’s phone away from her, and put her heart in Deb’s mouth, and get Alice, too, and all would be perfect. The Hive would give her what she wanted, and her veins ran blue with unashamed desire.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEmpgM5mxmQ 
> 
> Unashamed Desire, Missy Higgins


End file.
